SWFWMD proposes 25%
belt-tightening in Southern
Water Use Caution Area
The Southwest Florida Water Man-
agement District has distributed a draft
management plan intended as a "straw
man" for discussion by the Southern
Water Use Caution Area Work Group.
The stated goal is to halt regional dete-
rioration of groundwater quality and
lowering of lake levels in the SWUCA.
The plan is decidedly ambitious. It de-
Sclares that the safe yield
from the confined aquifers
in the Eastern Tampa Bay
WUCA is approximately
150 million gallons a day
(mgd), assuming that with-
drawals from the confined
aquifers in the remaining
Southern Ground-water Ba-
sin remain near their current
average annual quantities
(550 mgd).
Current annual withdraw-
als from the confined aqui-
fers in the Eastern Tampa
Bay WUCA are approxi-
mately 200 mgd, so the pro-
posal calls for a 25 percent
reduction in water use in
this area.
A litany of stringent con-
servation measures are pro-
posed in the plan, to be en-
forced on all water use
permits in the SWUCA on
Jan. 1, 1997. Proposals in-
clude limiting water allocat-
ed for irrigation to that re-
quired by best available
technology, and reduction of per-capita
water use rates for public supply water

Water Watch
use permits. The district has even sug- t
gested the acquisition of existing water
use permits to reduce groundwater
withdrawals in the area, and even
across-the-board cuts on water use per-
mits, if required.
A SWUCA work group meeting was
held April 14, 1992 at Sebring. Further
workshops and hearings appear likely
on these potentially controversial
measures.